Marathon Magic

Interested in running a World Marathon Major in 2025? Here are the dates for next year’s races as well as tips on how to get into each race.

2025 World Marathon Majors Schedule

• Tokyo Marathon: Sunday, March 2, 2025
• Boston Marathon: Monday, April 21, 2025
• London Marathon: Sunday, April 27, 2025
• Sydney Marathon: Sunday, August 31, 2025
• Chicago Marathon: Sunday, October 12, 2025
• Berlin Marathon: Sunday, September 21, 2025
• New York City Marathon: Sunday, November 2, 2025

How to Get into the World Marathon Majors

Tokyo Marathon: Sunday, March 2, 2025

While the lottery and charity application window already closed for the 2025 race (both happen over the summer), there are still two ways you can run Tokyo next year!

• Runners who have completed at least four World Marathon Majors and are registered with AbbottWMM.com can submit an entry to win one of their 300 Tokyo Marathon spots between October 29 – November 12, 2024. If you’re eligible, you should have received an email from Abbott on October 30. Winners will be notified on November 13.
• If you’re a member of One Tokyo Global, you can apply to be a pacesetter. If accepted, you’ll get an entry to the marathon. Applicants must have completed a full marathon at least five times and your personal best (PR) marathon time must meet the entry criteria set for each finish time. For example, if you’re looking to be a pacesetter for a 4-hour marathon, you must have achieved a marathon PR of 3 hours and 30 minutes. If you’re a member, here’s a link to the pacesetter application. Note that you won’t be able to view this if you’re not already a member. The deadline to apply is Monday, November 4, 2024 at 11:59 JST.

Boston Marathon: Monday, April 21, 2025

While the time-qualifying application process is over—it happens in September—you can still get into next year’s race via a charity.

Charity applications officially opened on October 16, and as I’ve learned, the charity process for Boston is a bit like the Wild West, meaning there’s no consistent process around applying for a charity (each charity has their own application) nor are the timelines for getting your applications in consistent (each charity sets their own deadline).

That’s not to scare you away from the process. Running for a charity is awesome, but if you’re looking to run in 2025, you’ll need time to sort through all the non-profits to 1) see which one resonates the most with you, and 2) see if they’re still accepting applications. Each charity is allotted a certain number of bibs each year, and once the charities have filled their teams they can’t accept any other runners.

London Marathon: Sunday, April 27, 2025

Like Tokyo, the lottery for London has already happened but there are charity spots still available. Fundraising minimums vary and range from £1800 (~$2,300) to £4600 (~$6,000).

When I ran London in 2023, it was a somewhat last-minute decision, and I didn’t apply for a charity spot with Outward Bound until December 2022, so you still have time! Once I applied, I heard back very quickly—within a week—and kicked off my fundraising in January 2023.

Sydney Marathon: Sunday, August 31, 2025

The Sydney Marathon is the latest addition to the World Marathon Majors, and 2025 will be the race’s first year as an official Major. Given that this was only recently announced, there hasn’t been a lot of information released yet about how to get into next year’s race, but here are the two approaches that have been posted:

• Candidacy Club lottery: These are folks who successfully ran the Sydney Marathon while the race was still a candidate for the Majors, so that would be either in 2022, 2023. and/or 2024. If that’s you, you should receive communication on or around Wednesday, November 6th about how to register. Note that you have a choice to run either the 2025, 2026 or 2027 Sydney Marathon, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get your first preference.
• General lottery: This is everyone else 😊. The race organizers haven’t published any details about the lottery yet, but it looks like they’re aiming to share more information in early December.

To stay up to date on the 2025 race and get timely info on when the lottery opens, I highly recommend signing up for the Sydney Marathon’s email list.

Chicago Marathon: Sunday, October 12, 2025

Applications are still open for both guaranteed and non-guaranteed (think lottery) entry to the 2025 race. Both close at 2PM CT on November 21.

There are several ways to get a guaranteed entry to Chicago, including:

• Having a qualifying time, which varies by age and gender. For instance, if you’re aged 35–39, men need a qualifying time of 3:00:00, and women or non-binary folks need a qualifying time of 3:30:00.
• Running for charity. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
• Being a legacy finisher (i.e., you’ve run the marathon five or more times within the last 10 years).
• Being part of an international tour group. Tour partners haven’t been released yet, but applications won’t close until August 2025 for this entry method.
• Being a Chicago Distance Series participant. If you ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K Run, the Chicago 13.1 race, and the Chicago Marathon, you’ll receive an email about securing your guaranteed spot in the 2025 marathon.
• Cancelling entry for 2024: If you cancelled your 2024 entry via the race organizer’s standard process (this includes postpartum and pregnancy), you can apply for a 2025 spot.
• Being an elite runner: If you’ve run a super fast marathon on or after January 1, 2023 (think sub 2:25:00 for men and sub 2:45:00 for women and non-binary), you can apply for entry via the race organizer’s “High-Performance Program.”

If none of those guaranteed options apply to you, you can submit your name for the lottery. Runners from this pool will be drawn at random and notified on December 12, 2024 if their application has been accepted.

Berlin Marathon: Sunday, September 21, 2025

Like Chicago, the Berlin Marathon still has both guaranteed and non-guaranteed entries available for their 2025 race.

If any of the following apply to you, you can get guaranteed entry to the 2025 race:

• You want to run for a charity.
• You have a package with a tour operator.
• You’re a handbike or wheelchair competitor.
• You accepted a goodwill offer (i.e. needed to defer your 2024 entry due to pregnancy). If this applies to you, you’ll automatically be sent a registration code for the 2025 race via email, which needs to be redeemed by Nov. 21.
• You took part of Skate. If you finished the 2024 Berlin Marathon Inline Skating event (sounds awesome!), you should have received a personal access code via email in early October to register for the 2025 marathon.
• You’re part of the Jubilee Club, which is a group of runners, wheelchair athletes, and hand cyclists who have finished the Berlin marathon at least 10 times.
• You have a Sozialticket S ticket (available to Berlin residents to receive social benefits). Race organizers are offering 50 runners who have a Sozialticket S ticket the opportunity to purchase a race entry for 50 euros. If you’re eligible, email sozialticket@scc-events.com and attach your ID and a copy of your Sozialticket S ticket to receive a registration access code.

If none of the above apply to you, you can submit an application for the general lottery. Applications close November 21 and you’ll hear in early December if you’ve received an entry.

New York City Marathon: Sunday, November 2, 2025

Applications for guaranteed and non-guaranteed entry haven’t opened yet, which makes sense since the 2024 race just happened yesterday—congrats to all the NYC Marathon finishers!

But I did come across this sweepstakes where you can win a free entry to the 2025 race—no purchase necessary. The sweepstakes is through RallyUp and New York Road Runners. Entering takes a few steps. You first have to request the entry form through this site. You’ll then get a link to the entry form via email which is pretty short (name and address). Once you’ve filled out the form, you need to save it as PDF and either email it to entries@rallyup.com or physically mail it to the address provided. Lots of steps, yes, but if you win—10 folks will be selected—it’s a free entry for next year’s race! All sweepstakes entry forms must be received by November 7, 2024 at 11:59 pm ET.

If you miss this, don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways to get into next year’s race when applications open.

Guaranteed entires are usually those who:

• Have met the time qualifying standards in a race that’s been run from January 1 through December 31, 2024. Note that if you’re a New York Road Runners member, you can submit a half marathon qualifying time, assuming you achieved that time in one of their races during 2024.
• Participated in New York Road Runners’ 9+1 program in 2024, meaning you successfully ran nine New York Road Runner races (doesn’t matter what the distance was) and volunteered at one of their qualifying races. Note that to secure guaranteed entry through this method, you also must have an active New York Road Runners membership as of December 31, 2024.
• Have a 5K or 10K membership (i.e. donated money to New York Road Runners).
• Are a charity runner for Team for Kids or another charity. While application dates varies, the charities typically start accepting applications in March.
• Are part of an international tour group. While the official list of 2025 tour operators hasn’t been announced yet, here’s the list from 2024 for reference.
• Cancelled their 2024 entry. Note that if you cancelled your 2024 entry, you’re not automatically placed in the following year’s race. You still have to claim your 2025 entry.
• Participate in the Virtual TCS New York City Marathon (applications opened and closed in June).
• Are a streaker (not that kind!). In this instance, streakers are those who have completed 15 or more NYC Marathons. There are more than 1,500 of you out there. Congrats!
• Join the NYRR Team for Climate. 2025 registration info is coming soon.

For non-guaranteed entry (i.e., the lottery), applications are typically accepted in February or March each year, so stay tuned! Note that if you’re a New York Road Runners member and you don’t get selected into the lottery the first time around, your name is automatically submitted to a second-chance drawing. Whoopee!